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Saturday 11 September 2021

Imagine a school



Imagine a UK school where all pupils are required to take regular lateral flow tests. In one case the test is positive so that pupil is sent home in the middle of the day with a requirement to arrange a PCR test before being allowed to come back. Imagine the disruption.

This imaginary pupil takes another lateral flow test at home on the same day. To the surprise of nobody, this test is negative. A hastily arranged PCR test later that day is also negative, that result being reported twenty four hours later. In other words the initial lateral flow test gave a false positive result.

Now imagine a situation where the same school actually had about forty positive lateral flow tests on the same day. Imagine that disruption. A second confirmation lateral flow test in school could possibly minimise the disruption if the false positives are random, but that would miss the point. The testing is not a diagnostic test but a bureaucratic procedure. What matters is that the procedure is followed, that boxes are ticked. 

Insane? Of course it is.

5 comments:

Sam Vega said...

We've actually experienced that disruption. Just imagine what it's like when neither parent is at home, or they are busy so the arrangement of the PCR test (12 miles away) is something of an inconvenience. The ripples spread out. And if there are any other minor domestic crises (ours was a car out of action) then guess which crisis is expected to take priority...

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

I have to be totally honest here, but I really don't want to imagine a school these days...

A great friend's wife is Headmistress in two schools in North London, and she's worked solidly ever since the start of the covids. She's had eighteen months of awful pressure from bungling NHS bods to even worse, bungling politicians, so what you say is certainly true, and during all that time, the kids are learning very little...

I've only met her once, many years ago, and sincerely hope that her desire to retire to their cottage abroad works for them both very soon!

Penseivat said...

In Huxley's "Brave New World", it is vaccines which determines the social group a new born child will enter. It appears that, with the determination of the New World Order, the use of covid vaccines on the young, and the constant interruptions on children's education today, the social structures are already being determined. I wonder how many of tomorrow's Deltas or Morons are children being affected today? The children of todays Alphas (the elite) will, of course, be allowed to enter the social class of their parents.
Am I scared? At my advanced age, of course not. I'm bloody terrified, but only for my children and grandchildren.

Andy5759 said...

Penseivat, I'm not scared either but I most definitely am angry. Angry that this is happening on "my" watch, that I can see it all unfolding yet unable to stop it. It doesn't make for a happy few twilight years.

A K Haart said...

Sam - sounds very similar to our experience apart from the car problem. All very arrogant and unhelpful I thought.

Scrobs - that does seem to be a frustrating aspect in that it doesn't seem to make much difference how hard some heads or teachers work, the bureaucracy just screws them.

Penseivat - the constant interruptions on children's education does suggest that government does not view their education as particularly important. As if in the new world order it won't be important beyond the basics.

Andy - I agree, it doesn't make for a happy few twilight years. It isn't even easy to discuss because it is almost bound to come across as an age thing or excessively pessimistic.